Maria Reynolds

Maria Reynolds (1768-) was an American woman who had an affair with Alexander Hamilton in 1791-1792 after claiming that her husband was mistreating her. The affair was one of the causes of Hamilton's loss of popularity in politics, but his public confession was received well by the common folk, who admired his honesty.

Biography
Maria Reynolds was born in 1768 in New York City, and she married a man named James Reynolds, living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with him; the couple had a daughter. In 1791, she approached Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in Philadelphia, claiming that her husband was mistreating her and the child and had left her. Hamilton offered to walk her home, and he gave her $30 to go to New York; she invited him into his house, and they had a sexual affair. They would have a relationship for a whole year, and when her husband found out about her adultery, he decided to allow Hamilton to see her if he paid him a bribe so that he would not reveal the secret affair. Hamilton considered leaving Maria after the husband blackmailed him, but the affair continued for another year. Eventually, Hamilton's enemies Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and Aaron Burr found out about the affair, and Hamilton was forced to publicly confess to it to prevent his enemies from inventing a twisted story.